Nurse’s perceptions about caring for children with palliative care needs and to shift focus of care between children with palliative care needs and children with curative care needs. : - A qualitative study (engelsk)

Abstract [en]

Caring for children at hospital with palliative care needs arouses different reactions in nurses and depends on what prior knowledge and experience nurses have. To besides shift focus from to care children palliative to care curative is further a strain and an emotional changeover. The aim of this study was to illuminate nurse’s

perceptions about caring for children at hospital with palliative care needs, and how they shift focus of care between children with palliative care needs and children with curative care needs. The study has a qualitative approach and data were collected with interviews from two focus groups. The interviews were performed in two different hospitals in the middle of Sweden, and analyzed with a manifest content analysis. Five themes were created from the analysis: create confidence and individualized relations, difference in meeting of children with unlike care needs, acquired experience and ability to reflect, need of support, supervision and distance,

difficulties to enforce a balance in changing between different care need. The conclusion was that nurses who shift between caring for children with a palliative care or curative care needs are exposed to psychological strain which may lead to psychological ill- health. This is important to prevent through for example continuous supervision which may contribute to the possibility for nurses to obtain more time for reflection and regain new strength.